Thanksgiving prep

yes same here

Pixie, I wish you lived here. If you did-- I'd have you and your family seated right round my table. give you a place to rest your mind and body.

Jen, if it turns out that you are celebrating Thanksgiving in the hospital and you need something that can't be brought - be sure to contact patient support services. If you give them a heads up about what you need ( drinks, extra utensils, chairs, small table, use of a conference room ( it would need to be same level I think) they will help you. As long as your BIL remains physically accessible and emergency personnel aren't hampered physically --- it will be done. And if he can go off the floor - they maybe can set few tables aside in cafeteria. Sometimes there are small meeting rooms around the cafeteria. I know it will be the best Thanksgiving it can be and your BIL and SIL will feel especially loved. I sure hope he is OK

Jo - that casserole sounds fantastic. Maybe she will share recipe?


This message was edited Nov 19, 2012 10:12 AM

Prayers for both Celeste's & Jen's families.

Best to all for Thanksgiving.

Thanks Rosie
Praying, Celeste, it's not bad


Was looking at all the stuffing packages today and they all had high fructose corn syrup, so considering doing my own stuffing cubes...but I don't want to screw the stuffing up, that would be bad thing having lousy stuffing

I just do bread and use the recipe from the bells seasoning box except add sausage to it. A once a year treat.

What kind of sausage do you use? Hubby and I had a heated discussion one year about the type you're supposed to use, so ended up not using any, LOL

Just wish I was closer & could help......

Sage Breakfast sausage

thanks

We use turkey sausage.

Sage breakfast sausage here too, either Jimmy Dean, Don Evan's, or hubby makes his own.

How early has anyone made a side dish? I was tempted to bake the sweet potatoes and mash them today, but figured it was too early. I usually do everything, including desserts on Thursday.

Wed is the earliest my wife does anything. Mom bakes starting Tue.

I do any pre cooking Wednesday also

I precook some things Wed too Jen.. usually do the mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and things like that the day before.. this year I am attempting to make a gluten free cake for my niece.. and going to try gluten free gravy & stuffing... not an easy holiday for gluten free that's for sure... Jen did you see any gluten free stock at the stores??.. I do have some homemade .. but was looking for spare backup.. and didn't have any luck... we are having 12 here.. 14 with Randy and I.. deep frying our bird of course.. and sausage stuffing

Well I didn't end up doing anything, even digging out dishes, because Lindsey texted me to meet them out for dinner. Leah didn't stop looking around the restaurant. It was a busy place.

I'll bake cookies, pumpkin & blueberry bread, and brownies tomorrow afternoon, my pies tomorrow night and the rest on Thursday.

Paul McCartney says to skip the turkey, so I am tempted to go out and buy another.

we will pre-make the creamed onions, mushroom casserole, and stuffing tomorrow. bird, mashed, squash, and greens on t-day.

Shop rite, has a great gluten free soup/stock selection

Checked all the bags of stuffing mix and every one had high fructose corn syrup so I'm making mine own for the 1st time...I'm going to do a test sample tomorrow

Already made the soup and froze it. Will do the cranberry sauce tomorrow so the flavers can "mingle".

Jen if you have a Whole Foods nearby they carry it and aslo Giant has an organic section and they should have some if your doesn't turn out.

thanks! My step mil is going to do it now since we're moving dinner up closer to the hospital...they are saying he should be able to go home tomorrow if everything goes well..

but will remember that for next year

Will make the cranberry sauce tomorrow, the rest Thursday....will clean tomorrow, too, my least favorite job!

I am making my own stuffing as well Jen.. thanks.. we don't go to shop rite here.. the place is always nuts.. it's in a mall and can fight to park on a normal week

Costco has brussel sprouts in refridge section with sauce gluten free

If I made fresh, I would cook up ahead and chop then dress and cook on Thursday

I make cranberry sauce ahead

Also roasted the yams but will not peel or make the whipped yam and banana casserole until Thursday morning

I sauted the mushrooms, onions red pepper and garlic for the stuffing so thatis ready for the bread and eggs and cheese on Thursday ( meat free)

When my bro who has celiac dz visits - I make a rice and mushroom and pea stuffing - so no gluten issues and tastes great even without gravy.

Have you called swanson because I think my sis in law did and they told her the chicken broth is gluten free --- loaded with salt tho!

I imagine you could break up rice checks for the dressing



I boil the eggs for devid eggs a day ahead

I roast the nuts a day or two ahead

I am going to attempt popovers this year -- i have made before but not on such a hectic day.

Well I still haven't done anything pre, and DH usually goes out of town today and home Thursday, so I usually have all tonight after work and all Thurs morning by myself to do all the cooking. He's not going this year, the first time in the 20 years we've been together. Maybe he'll see just how much time and effort it takes.

This was sent to me this morning.I just had to share with gardeners.
LET US GIVE THANKS
by Max Coots

Let us give thanks for a bounty of people.
For children who are our second planting, and though they grow like
weeds and the wind too soon blows them away, may they forgive us our cultivation and remember fondly where their roots are.
Let us give thanks for generous friends with hearts as big as hubbards and smiles as bright as their blossoms,
For feisty friends as tart as apples,
For continuous friends, who, like scallions and cucumbers
keep reminding us that we’ve had them,
For crotchety friends, as sour as rhubarb and as indestructible,
For handsome friends who are as gorgeous as eggplants
and as elegant as a row of corn, and the others, as plain as potatoes and so good for us,
For funny friends who are as silly as Brussels sprouts and as amusing as Jerusalem artichokes,
And serious friends, as complex as cauliflowers and as intricate as onions,
For friends as unpretentious as cabbages, as subtle as summer squash, as persistent as parsley, as delightful as dill, as endless as zucchini, and who, like parsnips, can be counted on to see us through the winter,
For old friends, nodding like sunflowers in the evening-time, and young friends coming on as fast as radishes,
For loving friends, who wind around us like tendrils and hold us,
despite our blights, wilts, and witherings,
And, finally, for those friends now gone, like gardens past that have been harvested, but who fed us in their times that we might have life thereafter.
For all these, we give thanks.

Here is the squash,apple,onion casserole.We substitute caramelized red onion for sweet onion and leave out the bacon.Just personal choice.
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/butternut-squash-apple-onion-au-gratin/

I hijacked the LETS GIVE THANKS for my facebook page. Thank you for posting it.

Tee Hee it's on mine too.
The GF whom sent it thought as a gardener I would like it and she added most of the people she sent to were urbanites and didnt have a clue what a Hubbard was.It made me remember this:

My grandfather bought a Hubbard squash once.We had to open it with an axe.It was about 3 feet dia. The hacked off chunks were cooked.The remainder of the beast was left in the cold garage for further axing all winter.

This message was edited Nov 21, 2012 10:11 AM

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My oven broke!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the 0 isn't working....would take a REALLY LONG time to cook anything on 35°
Stupid oven, hated this thing since day 1. Give me my old gas oven with real knobs where the only thing that ever went wrong is the pilot may have gone out, where you just relight that with a match

Thanks, Jo, that was great......got me thinking about my friends, & which veggie they were! Jen, hope you get it fixed pronto! My friend bought a new stove a few years ago, with a convection oven...but something was wrong...if you jostled it, it turned off.....30 folks waiting for turkey...yep, it had turned off! Dinner was at 8pm that night!

I set it to 351, but now I really don't trust the thing

Cook the turkey now!

Hubby is smoking it tomorrow, so we're good with that...taking it up to the in laws, but I had to do the pies today, made cole slaw last night( there's something that can be done earlier in the week)

Sorry Jen, that just sucks when it happens before a big even/Holiday!

Woke up this morning @ 2am with stomach ache. Up again @ 4:30 and vomited , back to bed, up @ 5:30 same thing. Went back to bed and stayed there until 2PM!! Still feel a little queasy but no longer vomiting thank goodness. I am now attempting to wash my floors and bake my pies.

No! So sorry, may be stress......again, too bad Maine is so far.....don't know about the pies, but I can wash a floor.....all my prep is done....tomorrow is just for turkey & kugli....my DIL called last night....not happy....my dear son had called her from his hunting trip to tell her he, too, needs kugli or it won't be Thanksgiving......I would have given him a message! But I gave her the recipe, & good luck to them.....she was only making 15 pounds of mashed tatoes for her mother tomorrow...they do get a crew up at the farm......

Jen - this will be the Thanksgiving you remember in your old age.

Mine is the year my bro said 'whats this lever?" and --LOCKED MY OVEN WITH TURKEY IN IT on self clean! New house new oven and COULD NOT stop it for a while --panic while temp rose and rose.... hubby finally did something with clock and fooled the oven into thinking time up. That would not happen today lots of safegards. We had to wait for oven to cool to open the door and spring the turkey loose. Meanwhile I threw up a pot of pasta - the burners worked. Ha! He hates when I tell that story.

I sure loved that poem and about to post on Facebook

that stinks Jen.. sorry!!!